Conventionally, each photograph taken by a digital camera is stored as an image file. Typically, the image file is in the JPEG File format.
At times, different file formats of the same image are required for different uses. For example, a photography competition may require a JPEG-compressed image for viewing and assessment, and require the same image in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) for printing. Also, sometimes the uncompressed raw image with full resolution that is generated by the camera upon taking a photograph may be required. For computer graphics, the images may have two separate files, a raster version for viewing and a vector version for more precise reproduction at higher resolution. It is observed that when there are numerous files of different formats representing the same image, file management can be troublesome as many files are involved.
File management of image files of related images may also be troublesome. For instance, in High Dynamic Range photography, there may be a few related photographs that are taken with different exposure rates. In Panorama photography, there may be a few related photographs to be stitched up to form a panorama image.
A need therefore exists to provide a data file that addresses at least the above-mentioned problems.